René Redzepi Shocked By The Deliciousness Of Slow-Cooked Pig Ears
World-renowned Danish chef René Redzepi has been called a visionary. Often. We're talking about a guy who treats a two-year-old carrot like côte de boeuf at his acclaimed restaurant Noma in Copenhagen. So, it's quite striking to see the man who blows so many minds (red ants with crème fraîche, anyone?) seem entirely blown away by something many Americans would consider quite common nowadays: a plate of pig ears.
In a new video depicting Redzepi's regular Saturday Night Projects, in which Noma's young cooks present their latest cooking experiments, the chef seems oddly befuddled by the sheer presence of aural pork offal, and simply astounded at how good it tastes. "I've never really enjoyed eating ear," he says. "This is so good. Like, so good." We're kind of shocked, too. Has the worldly Redzepi never been to New York's The Spotted Pig, which has been serving April Bloomfield's legendary crispy pig ear salad on and off for years? In the wake of growing menu ubiquity, The New York Times called the pig ear essentially over at the end of 2012. Or, have we Americans become so pork obsessed that the nasty bits simply no longer make us blink? You decide. Watch the clip here:
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